P.J. Carlesimo May Be Right Coach For Brooklyn Nets

By Andy Schmidt

Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

P.J. Carlesimo has a long and checkered history of coaching around the National Basketball Association but may have found himself a nice landing spot for the time being with the Brooklyn Nets. Brooklyn is 14-7 with Carlesimo in charge and with the team firmly in the playoffs, I think Brooklyn should just give Carlesimo the job full-time. This could sour very quickly, but for the time being at least, it seems to be working out.

Brooklyn is just one game out of first place in the Atlantic Division right now and if Deron Williams can keep playing through his ankle pain, there is potential for Brooklyn to overtake the New York Knicksto win the division. That didn’t seem possible not too long ago when the team was struggling through the middle of their season and fired Avery Johnson. Carlesimo has come in and so far has been a stable force on the bench for this Nets team.

The biggest question to me right now would be how long can Carlesimo keep this up before players like Williams do what they normally do if things aren’t going their way and get Carlesimo removed. This could be the case where that doesn’t happen if Brooklyn keeps winning and makes a deep playoff run. The Nets didn’t make any big moves at the trade deadline so Carlesimo will need to work with what has gotten to this point already. I think if Brooklyn advances to the Eastern Conference Finals this season that Carlesimo will be safe and will not be the interim coach going into next season.

Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports, like his Facebook page or add him to your network on Google.